Top veterinarians, best-selling pet-care authors and other top pet-care experts are all part of the Pet Connection team. If you would like the newest, freshest weekly syndicated Pet Connection articles from the Universal Press Syndicate for your newspaper, publication or Web site, find out more here.
Poinsettia myths
published 12/19/2005 | View all articles from this day
Q: After years of reading that poinsettias are poisonous, I’ve heard in the last couple of years that they’re not. Looking on the Web, there’s contradictory information. I like holiday greenery, but I’m not going to risk my pets’ lives. What’s the truth? — S.T., via e-mail
A: Just last week I got a media release from a humane society, one of dozens of such releases I get this time of year from every conceivable organization or business hoping to get a little publicity. And there it was: “Be careful to keep poisonous plants such as poinsettias away from your pets.”
Wrong. Poinsettias are not poisonous, according to folks who know more about pets and poisons than anyone else, the Animal Poison Control Center (www.aspca.org/apcc). Apparently the idea that poinsettias are deadly traces back to a story from early in the last century, when a young child was said to have been killed by eating a poinsettia leaf.
In fact, poinsettias can cause a mild tummy ache at most. While it’s not recommended that you add poinsettia leaves to your pet’s holiday meal, they’re certainly not such a concern that you need to ban the plant from your home.
Mistletoe might be, however. According to the APCC, the common holiday decoration can, if ingested in sufficient quantities, cause a severe reaction that may include difficulty breathing, seizures, coma and even death. Other holiday eating hazards include yeast dough, alcohol, chocolate and avocados.
The Internet can be a good source of information — or an even better source of misinformation. Whenever I get one of those breathless forwarded e-mails warning of a deadly substance or product, I check it out with the Animal Poison Control Center and with Snopes.com to make sure it’s not another urban myth — as the ongoing warnings about Febreze and Swiffer home-cleaning products have been shown to be by these reliable sources.
All information copyright 2010 by Dr. Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori.
This information is provided for the personal use of Pet Connection readers
and may not be reproduced in any way or in any media without expressed,
written permission of Dr. Marty Becker, Gina Spadafori, Honest Dog L.L.C.
and the Universal Press Syndicate.
Contact us
for information on using any material
from this Web site. All advice offered is general, and the Pet Connection is
not responsible for any problems arising from the use or misuse of the
information. Since each animal and each situation is unique, we recommend
that you contact your own veterinarian for help with any health or behavior
problems in your pet.
Terms & Conditions